Part of the reason that works is that “Better Than Bouillon” is a big umami bomb in and of itself with its MSG in the form of hydrolyzed soy protein. (And, I have no problem with that – I use stock cubes or straight-up MSG in my cooking relatively frequently).
Shoulder of lamb. In a big tin with loads of rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper, cover with foil and into a super-hot oven to get it going, then turn it straight down to about 130C for about four hours.
Coarsely mashed mix of potato/carrot/swede (what you guys call rutabaga, I think?) and some sort of dark cabbage.
Gravy made from the copious juices in which the lamb will now be swimming, boiled down with chopped capers and a dollop of jelly made from the sloes leftover from making sloe gin.
Mint sauce.
Big ol’ glass of Rioja. And another…
…or, as my name suggests, Yorkshire Pudding. For the uninitiated, it’s basically a sort of huge pancake, oven roasted in dripping, served with gravy. Often made quite small and served as a side with roast beef, but here in Yorkshire they’re the size of a dinner plate.
And that is actually what I ended up making today. And it was glorious. Meat stuffed crepes with paprika-sour cream sauce. What’s not to like? 
I love it, and its cousin done up with sausages–toad in the hole? I have to use bratwurst given where I live, but it’s still glorious, especially with a bit of mustard on the side.
My favorite chilly dishes are potato leek soup (and I use ALL the leek, no French nonsense about only using the whites) and ham and bean soup. I also like to make pot roast with lots of onions and stewed tomatoes, and serve it mushed up and thickened over mashed potatoes. Also sausage and peppers with a side of “midwestern Alfredo”: egg noodles tossed with a sauce of butter, cottage cheese (Michigan or Daisy brand or something without gums)and lots of black pepper.
And of course, pork chops and applesauce.
To me a “comfort food” has to be simple, and it has to have great basic taste with considerations of healthy eating put aside for the moment. Very appropriate topic with winter coming, and in the shorter term, heavy rain predicted for tomorrow.
One of my current fave comfort foods is shepherd’s pie, which has the added virtue that this particular one can be bought read-made at a store up the street. Most commercial shepherd’s pies are crap, but this store-made one creates the culinary ambiance of Sunday evening at grandma’s house. Lots of beefy goodness with some peas and sweet corn and covered in a thick layer of piped mashed potatoes that gets browned in the oven. It works either with gravy or – in the true rustic spirit of comfort food – with ketchup.
Roast prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes whipped with cream (not milk) is another one although it fails the “simple” requirement. I mention it because we had it last night and it was totally yummy (that’s a technical term used by Michelin-starred chefs ;)) and now I’m going to try my hand at homemade shepherd’s pie with the leftovers. I was long under the impression – probably wrongly – that shepherd’s pie was a traditional way of using up roast beef leftovers. I think this is wrong because traditional shepherd’s pie is a lamb dish anyway, and the beef version I believe is largely an Americanization.
Baked sausage rolls is another rainy-day comfort – the traditional piggies in a blanket. They need apple sauce for dipping but not any apple sauce: they need Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Apple Grille Sauce.
Another store-bought one that works for me is a particular local version of chipotle chili, with garlic bread for sopping up the last of it. This can be either fresh rolls or baguette slices toasted and buttered with garlic butter, or a recent new twist: having a little mini casserole of baked shrimp in garlic butter first, then having the chili with bread dipped in the leftover and still-warm garlic butter.
I’ll likely be making fried lumpia soon, which can be a PITA for those who are not experienced in peeling and rolling the tissue-thin wrappers. But I’ve probably made 10,000 of these lovely Filipino versions of an egg roll, so it goes pretty quickly. I like to make them with pork and bay shrimp. If any of you decide to attempt these, regular egg roll wrappers are a very poor substitute.
My comfort food go to is perogies. The frozen ones will never be as good as the homemade ones my Ukrainian Baba used to make, but she’s gone now, so they have to do. Boil them, pan fry some bacon, then lightly brown the boiled darlings in some of the bacon fat. I used to serve them at this point, but for an extra yummy, gooey, comforting dish, put them in a casserole dish with the bacon bits, cover with grated cheddar cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is all melty. You can also add sauteed onions, though I prefer them without. Serve with sour cream and chopped green onions. So good.
I’ve done pierogies like that, too, so good! I agree the frozen ones will never match homemade. I’d love to know a place where I could buy them fresh.
The frozen ones are better than never having ANY! :eek:
I don’t boil them. I fill a quart measuring cup with very hot tap water and drop in the desired number of frozen pierogies. Let them hang out in there 7-10-ish minutes while you heat up the butter, maybe fry some onions. Then drop them in the butter. They will spatter because of the water, so cover for a couple of minutes. Then fry until GBD (Golden Brown & Delicious --Alton Brown).
Some of the frozen brands gets quite close. So close, that my mom doesn’t even bother making them homemade. Here in Chicago we have Alexandra’s as the family favorite. Kasia’s is pretty decent, too. We are not fans of Mrs. T’s, though.
I’ve fried them and boiled them but I’ve never tried the hot water method,I’m going to next time.
I will have to see if we have Alexandra’s around here, I’m almost positive we don’t have Kasia’s unfortunately.
Mrs. T’s suck. They are a nationally distributed brand, no?
Brooklyn has White Eagle, sold refrigerated in many groceries, made locally, rolled on the naturally perfumed thighs of beautiful young blonde Polish virgins.
Rainy weather calls for grilled cheese and 'mater soup. If it is a cold icy rain, add hot chocolate.
Tomato and chocolate soup doesn’t sound all that comforting to me personally. 
That’s just to thaw them a little. Faster than boiling them (and unnecessary).
Totally agree with you about the goodness of authentic homemade perogies, but I also love onions so can’t agree with you on that. I start to brown them in butter and then add chopped white onion, and serve with sour cream when the perogies are browned and the onions golden. I often add chopped green onions, too – I thought I was the only one who did that, but I tend to add those to lots of things!
I think Alexandra is limited to the Chicago area. Kasia’s, at least looking at their store locator online, seems to have at least some national distribution.
It’s about time to make a huge batch of my SO’s cheese lentil potato soup. Lentil soup with frozen hash browns, cooked until they dissolve. Add enough cheese to raise your cholesterol level, along with some onion. It’s yummy fresh made, and gets better with freezing, although you might have to thin it out with some milk when you reheat it.
I like to make a huge batch and free it in 2 serving sizes. Nights I don’t feel like cooking, I can pull one out and serve with a salad or with some kind of bread.